Innovative atlas puts Indigenous knowledge on the map — literally — to help tackle climate crisis

Hetxw'ms Gyetxw spent his childhood on Gitxsan territory in the Northwest Interior of British Columbia, and he's seen the dramatic ways climate change has altered the land where he grew up. The river he used to skate on no longer freezes over. The glaciers he remembers have disappeared. 

"We've watched the world change," Hetxw'ms Gyetxw said in an interview. "I'm going to be 40 this year, but in my lifetime I have watched our land change completely."

Hetxw'ms Gyetxw is Gitxsan, a matrilineal society which doesn't use last names. He goes by his full traditional name.

Now living in Winnipeg with his family, Hetxw'ms Gyetxw has used his first-hand experience to bridge the gap between Indigenous knowledge and Western science, and to help create a new interactive tool aimed at understanding and addressing climate change in Canada.

The Indigenous Knowledges component of the Climate Atlas of Canada, launched today, is the culmination of years of work by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw and the team at the University of Winnipeg's Prairie Climate Centre, in collaboration with Indigenous communities across the country. 

"We've launched a new map of Canada," Ian Mauro, executive director of the Prairie Climate Centre, said in an interview. 

Until now, the interactive atlas did not show climate change projections for Indigenous communities. Only Canadian urban centres were included.

The newly-launched feature provides information about the impacts of climate change on 634 First Nations communities and 53 Inuit communities, while also profiling projects surrounding climate change adaptation and mitigation across the Métis homeland. 

The map also shares videos from Indigenous elders and knowledge keepers, centring their knowledge as a resource. It highlights projects aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, such as the Cowessess First Nation wind-solar battery storage project in Saskatchewan, and community efforts to adapt to climate change, like the Métis wildland firefighters.

Mauro, who is not Indigenous, said it was important for him as a geographer to help put Indigenous communities on the map — literally in some cases — and work toward reconciliation. 

"It's a massive contribution from Indigenous communities to all of Canada … to think about a different way of approaching this hugely complex issue that is grounded in that millennia-old yet current and modern Indigenous wisdom," he said.

The unique approach illustrates how Western or Eurocentric climate change science and Indigenous expertise can complement one another. It's the embodiment of a concept sometimes called two-eyed seeing, which Hetxw'ms Gyetxw describes: 

"Through one eye you're looking at the world through the Western sciences and the other eye you're looking through traditional knowledges … you're taking all perspectives and you're seeing the world as it truly is, not just in one segmented way."

Hetxw'ms Gyetxw said Indigenous knowledge is often stereotyped as only being about the past, or relegated to topics like hunting and fishing. He hopes this new tool will help Canadians see the bigger picture.